- Tweeter
republish
The Supreme Court suspends as a precaution the exhumation of the remains of the dictator Francisco Franco scheduled for June 10, the time that the family lawsuit can be considered on the merits. The purpose of this suspension is, according to the Court, to avoid the " prejudice " that could be caused to the dictator's descendants, but also to the State, if their appeal was ultimately accepted. This decision illustrates the difficult and painful memory work of Spain.
El Valle de los Caidos, literally "the valley of those who fell in battle" during the Civil War, is a monument commissioned by General Franco to pay tribute to the nationalist fighters who died during the Spanish Civil War. This monument, a basilica surmounted by a 150-meter-high cross, was built by thousands of political prisoners in the 1940s and 1950s. Some 27,000 "nationalist" fighters who fought under Franco's orders were there. buried, as well as some 10,000 Republican soldiers, came out of the cemeteries and mass graves without the families having been informed.
A gigantic basilica surmounted by a 150-meter high cross houses the dictator's tomb. Each year 250,000 people go there, because it is located only about fifty kilometers from the capital Madrid and very close to the Escurial where the kings of Spain are buried.
Among these visitors, thousands of Spaniards singing the hymn of Falangists raised arms for Franco's salvation.
Since his election in early June 2018, the new Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez wants to end this pilgrimage of nostalgic Franco's to make a place dedicated to the memory of the civil war. " No dictator ," he says, " has his mausoleum in a democratic state ," but he faces legal action from the heirs of the dictator and the resistance of the Benedictine monks who maintain the mausoleum. The Supreme Court has temporarily suspended its plan to move the burial to a private place in the name of the interests of Franco's family.